44 ASTRONOMYANDTHEBIBLE
Onecanreadilyseethatsincethewordmeansthat
whichis expanded,itmightpossiblyhavebeenused
todesignateametalplatesoexpanded; yetnotonce
hasinspirationsousedtheword.
But whenwe examinethe term"expanse" as ap-
pliedtotheatmosphericheavens,wediscovera deep
andgreatsignificancetoit. Weunderstandthatair
is madeup of a mixtureoftwo gases, oxygenand
nitrogen;andweknowthatallgasestendtoexpand
unless in some way confined or restricted in space.
Furthermore, science teaches us that the expansion
ofanygasiscausedbythehammeringupononean-
otheroftheatomsofwhichthegasiscomposed. We
do notaim here to condonethe atomic theory;but
supposingthatscienceissomewhatright,webeginto
seehow theideaof "hammer" mightcome intothe
worddenotingtheatmosphere. Allmatter,andpar-
ticularly gaseousmatter, is vibrantwith force; and
forceisbuttheenergyofthecreativeword.
WhenGod,therefore,wrappedtheearthaboutwith
agaseousenvelope,vibrantundertheconstantly im-
pressed energyof theword, the veryvibratingand
clashingand hammeringofthe atoms of thegases,
particularly under theheatof thesun, causedthese
particles to seek wider roomand thus expanduntil
thestressofexpansionwasinperfectbalancewiththe
restrainingstressofgravity.
Andthusitiseventothisday.
Wecan picturehow, when God createdthe con-
stituentgasesoftheair,theymovedoutintoagreat
atmosphericexpanse,totheboundsfixedforitbythe